Class With Liz Greene-Sunday 9 May 2010

Had to get up quite early to eat and catch the Tube to Regents Park for my first class. I thought I might have to register or something, so I wanted to get there a bit early. Unlike at home, there's no timetable on the subway; the trains just run every few minutes, even on Sundays. I had to change trains once, and then find my way into the park from the Tube station, but that wasn't difficult. 

Class was fantastic! The topic was the cosmologies and cosmogonies of Western civilization and how they have affected Western Astrology.

Liz Greene is absolutely amazing. For one thing, she's an incredible scholar, and has a vast knowledge of history, and the great thinkers of Western civilization. She also has a way of standing outside the major movements/models/belief systems that have sprung up and faded away throughout time, and an ability to articulate the essence of a particular mode of thinking. Then she takes these nuggets and thinks about the implications and effects such models have on the way humans have perceived their world through the ages. For instance, we spoke of the difference between creation cosmologies (where there's a god who creates the Universe separate from itself) and emanation cosmologies (where the god is a part of the emanation of the divine source) and how those two different models influenced thought and Astrology. And how they were hybridized into complex, sometimes paradoxical belief systems. And what those systems implied as far as ideas of determination and free will, etc.


The class lasted from 10:00-4:00, with a couple of short breaks and a lunch hour. It flew by; I could have sat through many more hours of such discussions. There's a huge intellectual part of my brain that doesn't get a lot of exercise with the work that I do at home, and it was jumping with joy at being asked to stand up and do some work. I am so thrilled that I've managed to come and study here, even if only briefly.


I met a couple of very nice people in class: Marguerite, who lives outside London and has a 10 year-old son, and Israel, a large Anglo-Caribbean man with an infectious joyful approach to the world. I guessed within minutes of meeting them that Marguerite has a Virgo Moon, and that Israel is a Libra (I actually thought he might have Libra rising, but it's his Sun sign, and I did guess his Cancer Moon.) Turns out we are all in the weekly supervision groups together as well.


After class I met Isabelle, a friend from home who is also traveling in London. She and I went to Covent Garden to eat and catch up with each other. We managed to have decent conversations for a while, but both of us were so wiped out we began to forget what we'd just been talking about, and so both of us headed to our respective home-away-from-homes. It was great to hang with someone I knew, though, instead of being on my own.


Back at the flat I got Skype calls from multiple people and didn't get to bed until late. The heat was barely working, and I couldn't bring myself to attempt to bathe that night, not knowing what would happen with the hot water. I slept pretty well, as I was exhausted, both mentally and physically.